Dipa Karmakar's father believes presence of manager would've been helpful in Rio

Agartala, Aug 15 (ANI): While expressing satisfaction over his daughter's stellar performance in the Rio Olympics, the father of Indian star gymnast Dipa Karmakar, who missed the bronze medal by a whisker, said that the presence of a manager would have helped the team in problematic situations. According to reports, Dipa's coach Bisweshwar Nandi had alleged that they couldn't make an appeal against the result due to the absence of a manager. The 23-year-old, hailing from Tripura, missed out on an Olympic medal by 0.150 points despite successfully executing the dangerous Produnova vault (15.266) in her second attempt to secure a remarkable 15.066 points overall. "A manager is absolutely needed in such big events because a coach cannot do everything alone," Dulal Karmakar told ANI. "When I was in Delhi (during training session), I had heard that the manager would go to Rio but I don't know if he had gone there or not. The coach would have received a big help if a manager had been there," he said. "A physiotherapist had also been sent to help in her recovery post-practice but there were some formalities that couldn't be fulfilled and perhaps as a result of that he couldn't be there during the final," Dipa's father added. Notwithstanding the allegation, Dipa's fourth-place finish in the individual vault final at the Rio Olympics is India's best performance at an international event. American gymnast Simone Biles clinched her third gold medal of the prestigious quadrennial event at the Rio Olympic Arena with a vault of 15.966 ahead of Russia's Maria Paseka (15.253) and Giulia Steingruber of Switzerland (15.216). Dipa, who vaulted into limelight with her death defying leap, had created history when she became the first Indian gymnast to enter the final on her debut at the quadrennial multi-discipline games after finishing eighth in the qualifying round. (ANI)